To follow another user's child, you must be invited. Upon being invited, you will receive an invitation email with a code.
If you already have an Ovia Parenting account and the app downloaded on your phone, you will also receive an invite in your notification feed (in "More" > Notifications & activity). You can choose to accept or decline your invite directly from your notification feed and will not need the email invite.
If you do not already have an account and the app on your phone, you will need to first download the app and open an account. Then you can open the email invite on your phone and tap the button for your invite code, which will open your Ovia Parenting app and allow you to follow the child.